"I was interested in the tone each writer used—reverential, myth-making. I didn’t know what I was going after"
At Entropy, Curtis Smith talks with Wiliam Walsh on writing and compiling Forty-Four American Boys
|
| Entropy |
Curtis Smith: Congratulations on Forty-four American Boys. Can I assume you’re a history buff? Can you trace the book’s roots back to your own childhood?
William Walsh: Well, unfortunately, I am not an historian and I’m not typically a participant in American politics. Until this past election, I never voted. My earliest memories of an American President was 1972, when Nixon was re-elected. I remember my parents coming home late from voting. I was in bed and woke up to ask them who they had voted for, and my father said, “Not Nixon.” Not long after that, I can recall my school lowering the flag to half-staff when Lyndon Johnson died. My teacher said, “There are now no living ex-Presidents.” I remember the Watergate hearings on TV one summer, and during Jimmy Carter’s administration I used to draw caricatures of him—his big smile and his head in the shape of a peanut shell. . .
